Tomb of the Unknowns

Under authority granted in 1921, unknown American soldiers from four cemeteries in France were placed in identical caskets at Chalons Sur Marne, and Sergeant Edward F. Younger of the US Army selected one on October 24, 1921, as the Unknown Soldier by placing white roses on its casket. The three others were returned to Meuse Argonne Cemetery, while the selected remains were carried aboard the US Cruiser Olympia to the Nation’s Capitol, lay in state in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol, and on Armistice Day were taken to the Memorial Amphitheater in Arlington National Cemetery and then to the sarcophagus after services marked by artillery salvos, Taps, and the National Salute. Under authority granted in 1946, 13 unknown Americans who died overseas during World War II were exhumed from cemeteries in Europe and Africa and sent in identical caskets to Epinal, France, where Major General Edward J. O’Neill of the US Army selected one in 1958 as the Trans-Atlantic candidate-unknown, while the others were reinterred. That same year, remains of two unknown Americans were disinterred from the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii and four from Fort McKinley American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines, and at Hickam Air Force Base Colonel Glenn T. Eagleston of the US Air Force selected one as the Trans-Pacific candidate-unknown. Aboard the Cruiser Canberra, Hospitalman First Class William R. Charette made the final selection of the World War II unknown, and the one not selected was buried at sea. Also under authority granted in 1958, four unknown Americans from the Korean Conflict were exhumed from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii, and Master Sergeant Ned Lyle of the US Army selected one on May 15, 1958, while the others were reinterred. The World War II and Korean unknowns were brought by sea to the Nation’s Capitol, lay in state until Memorial Day, were taken to the Memorial Amphitheater in Arlington National Cemetery, received the Medal of Honor from President Dwight Eisenhower, and after religious rites were honored with a 21-gun salute, three volleys, and Taps. In 1973, Congress directed the Secretary of Defense to inter an unknown American serviceman from the Vietnam Conflict at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Because identification methods were highly effective, not until 1984 were remains classified as unidentifiable. During ceremonies at Pearl Harbor on May 17, 1984, Sergeant Major Allan Kellogg, Jr., of the US Marine Corps formally designated the Vietnam unknown, who was then taken aboard the USS Brewton to the mainland United States, lay in state in the Rotunda of the US Capitol, and on Memorial Day 1984 was honored at the Memorial Amphitheater, where President Ronald Reagan presented the Medal of Honor, before burial rites with a 21-gun salute, rifle volleys, and Taps. On May 14, 1998, the Vietnam era unknown was exhumed for possible identification, taken to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, identified as First Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie of the US Air Force, and interred in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Missouri. The crypt is now empty and serves as a tribute to all who made the supreme sacrifice during the Vietnam Conflict.

Arlington, Virginia · United States